The Science of Cultivation-Chapter 244: Multi-Attribute Test

Li Lang had been told it was a challenging task for cultivators to maintain control of Qi of different attributes at the same time. It was much easier to either focus on one attribute or none at all. Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators normally went with the former. That was because non-attributed Qi was the jack of all trades and master of none. It had no strengths to speak of.

Just like with selecting beast cores for artificing, specializing in an attribute was much more powerful while non-attribute only had the advantage of being flexible.

Due to that, almost all weapon artifacts were made using beast cores specialized in a certain attribute. The non-attributed ones were only used in utility artifacts or certain defensive artifacts. The resulting armors weren’t able to block the attacks entirely, but they could weaken attacks of various elements, making them useful in many situations.

However, when it came to the cultivators themselves, being the weaker party in almost all situations was unacceptable. Almost all Earth-grade techniques specialized in a particular element for that reason. Some of the rarer ones made use of multiple attributes, but they required talented individuals who could multitask between the different types of Qi.

Right now, Li Lang found himself wanting to tackle the challenge of controlling three different types of Qi at the same time.

He grabbed another heavenly material from his pile, a common alchemy material by the name of Lighthorn. While continuing to absorb the energies from the Yellow Wind Flower and Ashen Clover, he began his attempt on the third material of the day. He assigned one of his remaining three spiritual roots to this task, and a new type of Qi began to travel toward his dantian.

“It’s—it’s working?”

This time, Li Lang was truly befuddled. There was barely any additional strain. It was completely different from what he had heard. Surely, he couldn’t have lucked out and possessed tremendous talent.

While thousands of things raced across his mind, he mechanically repeated the same steps of bringing the new Qi into his dantian. The Qi of light attribute didn’t seem to react in any particular way with the existing energies. Li Lang didn’t have the capacity to dwell on that as he completely focused on his little test.

Several moments passed, and he found he could maintain the connection with the three heavenly materials without any issue. Three constant streams of energy flowed into his dantian with no issue. Seeing this, his ambition began to grow as he reached out again for his pile of heavenly resources.

Just as he was rummaging through the pile, he abruptly came to a stop and took a deep breath.

I’m getting ahead of myself. I may have five spiritual roots, but there’s only three meridian channels that lead into my dantian. If I keep pushing, the different types of Qi will have to clash within my channels. I can’t believe I almost did something so dangerous without taking proper precautions.

“Blue, Orange, Green, are you three there?”

Within a breath of time, three globes of light floated into his room and then transformed into three young humans.

“How may we help, Master?” Blue called out as the representative of the other two.

“Keep watch over me. I’m not sure if anything will happen, but if you see anything wrong, do try your best to save me or transport me to someone if you can’t deal with it.”

“Um—Understood, Master.”

The three of them kept looking between him and the pile of heavenly resources, and it seemed like they wanted to say something, but didn’t dare. Having noticed their hesitation, Li Lang called out to his other trusty artifact spirit.

“Ruby, can you watch over me as well? You should be able to monitor the Qi within me more clearly than the others.”

“Of course, Master! Leave it to me.”

Then, it was Li Lang’s turn to hesitate as he wondered if he should call Wei Ping. His heart was telling him not to, as it was possible he would try to convince him not to go through with this test. However, the logical side of him reprimanded himself for wanting to take these risks without preparing for every scenario he could think of.

Finally, his rational side won out, and he ordered the three artifact spirits to summon his friend and research assistant. With the power the spirits had over their domain, the young man wearing the wooden mask was teleported straight into his room.

“Wei Ping, I need you to monitor my vitals while I try something. Hmm, get some Recovery Pills ready just in case.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“B-Boss? What is this all of a sudden?”

“I’ll tell you about it later. In fact, I think I’ll need you to do the same thing later.”

“Shouldn’t you get th-the students to test it out first? Half of th-them are in the Foundation Establishment Realm now.”

“No, they’ve already selected their cultivation technique. The only one left besides me who hasn’t selected one is you, since you just broke through recently.”

Wei Ping looked down thoughtfully, and no longer argued. He could hear it in Li Lang’s tone that he was at a critical juncture, so he swallowed down the things he wanted to say.

Seeing this, Li Lang nodded appreciatively to his friend and proceeded to grab another resource from the pile. This time, he took hold of an Azure Tearstone, a material used in brushweaving. It was used to create inkstones and ink. It contained rich water-element energy.

Once again, he focused on one of the two unoccupied spiritual roots and began absorbing the water-attributed Qi.

The scene replayed itself, but this time, he could sense the new water Qi eventually being ushered into the same passageway as the light Qi! He took a deep breath as he waited for the inevitable collision. He braced himself for what was to come, but to his surprise, nothing happened.

The two streams of Qi flowed in the same direction without any conflict. There was even a sliver of space between them. It was as if an invisible barrier separated them. Only when the Qi reached his dantian did they start interacting as before.

Li Lang didn’t dwell on the matter for now. His breathing quickened when he soon realized that he had yet to reach his limit. He didn’t dawdle and grabbed a fifth material from his pile. Nothing special happened either with this fifth attempt.

“This—How can this be? The difficulty has barely increased.”

Li Lang supported his chin with a fist as he closely observed the situation within his dantian. Five small orbs of Qi floated above his spiritual sea. Each of them was tethered to one of his spiritual roots, where a constant stream of energy was entering.

As he had yet to practice an Earth-grade technique, the orbs simply floated there peacefully. He couldn’t maintain them permanently and add them to his reserve. He could either use it or it’d dissipate in time.

Seeing this, he couldn’t help but try to push even further. He retrieved yet another material with a different affinity.

I only have five spiritual roots, so I’ll have to make this sixth type of Qi share the same pathway as one of the other ones. There isn’t any issue right now even when they share the channels, so it should be okay.

When he attempted to take in this new stream of Qi, the spiritual root he directed to this task inadvertently ceased absorbing from the Yellow Wind Flower it had been focused on. He tried several times, but it could only handle one type of Qi at a time.

“Is this my limit?”

It soon became obvious that there was no way he could get it to work with two different energies at the same time. He promptly gave up for now as he focused on the implications of what he had just accomplished.

“Does this mean I am capable of practicing a technique that involves five attributes?” Li Lang muttered. “But how does that make sense? Those with dozens of spiritual roots can barely handle two.”

“Boss?” Wei Ping called out in surprise. “What d-do you mean?”

“Hmm, give me one moment,” Li Lang replied, holding up a hand.

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I can slowly investigate why I can control five types of Qi later. I need to consider the impact this will have on my trajectory.

The five attributes I can control just now are wind, fire, light, water, and mist. I didn’t plan any synergy for this matchup. Going by logic, the most suitable five-attribute technique for me would be something utilizing the five main elements.

Li Lang felt like he was skipping many steps just to rush things along, but he really wanted to go through with it. The adrenaline from the possibilities presented to him had urged him to continue exploring.

He replaced several materials so that he had one of each of the five main elements. That meant he was now holding a heavenly resource that corresponded to fire, earth, water, metal, and wood.

He repeated his previous feat of absorbing the Qi from five different sources concurrently, and soon, five orbs of energy formed above his spiritual sea once again. He immediately noticed a significant difference compared to the last interaction.

The five elements were grouped together for a reason. The relationship between them was extraordinary. The locals believed these elements maintained the balance of the natural forces of the world. Seeing these five energies interact allowed Li Lang to get a glimpse into why this was the prevailing belief.

The five bodies of energy naturally began to spin around each other, and they began to tether to each other. Their size began to grow even faster than what could be explained by what the heavenly resources provided.

This is the generation cycle they talk about! The wood Qi is feeding the fire, the fire creates earth, the earth produces metal, the metal enriches water, and the water nourishes the wood!

A self-reinforcing positive feedback loop facilitating continuous energy transfer and transformation across distinct states, potentially exhibiting autocatalytic behavior or an open thermodynamic system with sustained input and minimal dissipation. No—from the rate it’s growing, it may not merely be recycling energy or drawing from an external source, but could in fact be generating energy from nothing. This directly defies the first law of thermodynamics!

Just as Li Lang was astounded by his new discovery, the spinning orbs of energy destabilized. Two of the five orbs began lagging behind the other three in growth. It put the entire system out of balance, causing the overall growth rate to decrease dramatically. It dropped until it matched the absorption rate of the materials. That meant its miraculous growth had stopped and was now only being maintained by the upkeep from the heavenly resources.

Why is this happening? The input of all five streams going into my dantian is consistent with each other. Why in the world did it lose balance?